Week 37 Complaints - We’ve got SALSA sussed..!
We’ve got SALSA sussed..!
Week 37 Complaints
Complaints, when received, need to
be handled quickly and efficiently.
Staff need to understand the
difference between a serious Complaint, such as a food safety issue, which is
when it needs escalating immediately, or a less serious Complaint such as a
quality issue. These are still very important to your business reputation,
however, are not an immediate food safety risk.
Staff need training about the
difference between a Food Safety Complaint or a Quality Complaint, especially
if they have very little food industry experience.
Having a system in place to deal
with Complaints efficiently and effectively is essential, particularly for the
reputation of the business.
Let’s check out how to tackle
this one!
What’s coming next…
Week 38 Document Control
Complaints - what do you need to show your SALSA auditor?
Complaints Procedure
Complaints Record or Complaints
Tracker
Complaints Procedure
The Complaints Procedure will be
the document on which you train to your staff members how to handle Complaints.
For staff to get it right first
time, they need to understand how to gather all of the correct and relevant
information. Being as clear as possible in your procedure, is important.
In the procedure you need to
state:
1.
Who handles Complaints
2.
How to handle the Complaint
3.
When to escalate the complaint
4.
The you need to carry out ‘Corrective & Preventive
Actions’
Probably, most complaints would
come through a telephone call from the consumer, or an email or call
from the customer who you supply the product to. Sometimes they can come
through social media channels, so you need to ensure you respond to these too.
Retailers sometimes have their own
Complaints Systems, on which you need to update information. If so, you would
have to find out how to use it and write that into your procedure.
For the purposes of this
explanation, I am going to cover your own ‘inhouse’ system.
When receiving a Complaint, the
staff member should have a Complaint Record printed off, or saved on the
computer, ready in a convenient location. A Complaint Tracker can be used as
long as it records the same information. In my opinion, having a Complaint
Record is better for the initial information gathering.
Step 1 Information Gathering
On accepting the call or receiving
the email, document the initial details on the Complaint Record /Tracker. These
records need to include as much detail as possible, to enable you to carry out
the investigation. You need to record the following:
·
Who is completing the Complaint Form, so
management know who to speak with if necessary
·
Customer Name & Contact Details (email and
phone)
·
Date & Time
·
Product
·
Batch Code
·
Use By / Best Before
·
Quantity
·
What the actual Complaint is, for example:
o For
sickness, allergy or contamination Complaints – get dates and times the
sickness started if you can. Ascertain if a doctor has been involved. Ascertain
what the contamination is believed to be, ask for photos or the product to be
returned for investigation. Obtain as much information as you can as these are
the serious Complaints.
o Labelling
was incorrect – find out what was incorrect exactly, can they send it back /
send photos? This could also, potentially, mean a recall, depending on what
information is missing.
o The
temperature of the product was too high on arrival – What was the temperature? What
was the time of arrival? Was the transport vehicle temperature taken? If so, is
there a vehicle temperature print out?
o The
packaging was damaged or tampered with. Have photos been taken, to forward to
you?
o The
product was over baked – can they send pictures?
Start to gather the information
ready for the investigation. Ensure you receive the photos, records, emails,
etc. As much detail as possible is always helpful.
Step 2 – Categorise as Quality
or Food Safety Complaint
The detail of the complaint needs
to be reviewed and categorised as a ‘Food Safety’ or ‘Quality’ Complaint. Food
Safety Complaints need handling by Management and taking down the ‘Incident’
route – please see last week’s Blog ‘Week 36 Managing Incidents’ as you may
have to carry out a Trace & Recall if necessary. If categorised as a
Quality Complaint, then the staff member dealing with the Complaint can
continue.
Step 3 – Corrective Action
Carry out your Corrective Action.
For example, if a pallet of chilled product was delivered to your customer, and
upon arrival it was over temperature, you would want to replace the pallet as
soon as possible to keep your customer happy. Or, if the delivery arrived and
it was the incorrect product or damaged, you would want to ensure the correct or
replacement product was sent as soon as possible. Deal with the Corrective
Action if you can, then move onto the Investigation.
Step 4- Investigation / Root
Cause Analysis
Investigation, or carrying out
Root Cause Analysis is the next stage.
If you look over Week 33
Corrective & Preventive Action, it explains how to carry out Corrective
Action, Root Cause Analysis and Preventive Actions too.
If the quality Complaint was due
to a reason such as, for instance, the chocolate they had received had bloomed,
(where it has a white coating on it). Obviously, this is not a serious food
safety issue. However, something has gone wrong somewhere, most probably in
storage, (either over-heating in storage or stored in a damp location). The Investigation
(Root Cause) into where this has happened should be carried out. Check if you
have any of the same batch left in storage for comparison. You could also ask
the complainant where they stored the chocolate too.
This is where your ‘Retention Sample’
comes in useful. Many businesses retain a sample of every batch of product they
make, in cases of food safety, legality or quality Complaints. It can be used
to compare quality, or it could be sent off for testing to confirm if the
product was at fault or not.
Document the details of your
investigation on the Complaint Record / Tracker.
Step 5 – Preventive Action
Once the Investigation is complete
and you have found the source (Root Cause) of the problem you can deal with
Preventive Actions. If the issue is on site, it can be corrected. If it is with
your storage provider, it can also be dealt with. In some cases, it can
obviously be the fault of the customers themselves. Whatever the reason, add a Preventive
Action.
If it is the fault of the consumer
themselves, if it is reasonable, replace their product and refund them. You
want to keep them happy and keep your reputation.
However, I think we all know that
there are ‘Professional Complainers’ out there, so just beware. This is where
your Complaint Tracker comes in very useful. It can help you to review trends
forming, from one person on several occasions.
Always respond to the consumers no
matter if it is their fault or not and keep the emails and letters as evidence
with the Complaint Record, or in an electronic Complaints folder system with
your Tracker.
Please see below and example of a
Complaints Record:
Now hopefully you should be well
equipped to deal with this one.
Please get in touch if you want to
ask anything, I am here to help. Be careful and stay safe!
Ruth
Ruthshawconsultingltd@gmail.com
07732
966 836
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